Advertising in general is a key revenue source in just about any commercial market or setting. To reach as many consumers as possible, advertisements are traditionally presented via billboards, television, radio, and print media such as newspapers and magazines. However, with the Internet, advertisers have found a new and perhaps less expensive medium for reaching vast numbers of potential customers across a large and diverse geographic span. Advertisements on the Internet can primarily be seen on web pages or web sites as well as in pop-up windows when a particular site is visited.
The Internet provides users with a mechanism for obtaining information regarding any suitable subject matter. For example, various web sites are dedicated to posting text, images, and video relating to world, national, and local news. A user with knowledge of a uniform resource locator (URL) associated with one of such web sites can simply enter the URL into a web browser to be provided with the web site and access content. Another conventional manner of locating desired information from the Internet is through utilization of a search engine. For instance, a user can enter a word or series of words into a search field and initiate a search (e.g., through depression of a button, one or more keystrokes, voice commands, etc.). The search engine then utilizes search algorithms to locate web sites related to the word or series of words entered by the user into the search field, and the user can then select one of the web sites returned by the search engine to review related content.
Oftentimes, users who are searching for information will see related advertisements and click on such advertisements to purchase products, thereby creating business for that particular retailer. Furthermore, the search engine is provided with additional revenue by selling advertisement space for a period of time to a retailer when a relevant term, such as, for example, the term “doggie,” is utilized as a search term. Thus, an individual who enters the term “doggie” into a search engine may be interested in purchasing items related to dogs—thus, it is beneficial for a company that sells pet items to advertise to that user at the point in time that the user is searching for a relevant term.
Conventionally, advertising space relating to search terms provided to a search engine is bought or sold in an auction manner. More specifically, a search engine can receive a query (from a user) that includes one or more search terms that are of interest to a plurality of buyers. The buyers can place bids with respect to at least one of the search terms, and a buyer that corresponds to the highest bid will have their advertisement displayed upon a resulting page view. Bidding and selection of a bid can occur within a matter of milliseconds, thereby not adversely affecting usability of the search engine. Thus, two or more competing bidders can bid against one another within a limited time frame until a sale price of advertising space associated with one or more search terms in the received query is determined. This bidding is often accomplished by way of proxies (e.g., computer component) that are programmed with a demand curve for specific search term(s). As alluded to above, auctioning advertising space associated with search terms is a substantial source of revenue for search engines, and can further be a source of revenue for advertisers.
Because of the potential of a significant boost in revenue from advertising with search terms, it is very likely that a business will associate as many search terms and variations as possible to their advertisements. For example, an advertiser of pet items might submit a list of terms and variations for “doggie,” such as “dog,” “dogs,” and “doggy.” The intent of the advertiser is to select all terms and variations that would likely be used by users during a search. However, these lists of terms are often manually composed and frequently omit terms/variations that might increase sales for the advertiser. As an example, sometimes different spellings of words become popular that would not normally be included in the lists such as “dogz” or “doggee.” Automatically finding these terms and including them in associated advertising terms could substantially improve sales for the advertiser and revenue for a search engine provider.